Nick Xenophon (SA, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

It is a big hole to be filled, but I believe that it is a massive challenge and we are up to it. With political will and working together with industry, we can do this because the consequence of not doing this will be massive to our economy around the country, as Senator Carr indicated.

Let us say that 100,000 jobs will be lost in net terms. I think it will be worse than that because we are looking at 200,000 jobs. The welfare bill alone would be in the order of $2 billion a year, and yet we have an automotive diversification program in the tens of millions—about $60 million—which is hopelessly oversubscribed. It is not enough. The government is holding back on the Automotive Transformation Scheme, and that is something that must be addressed as a matter of urgency.

The reason we need to deal with this urgently is that we are running out of time. The next six months will be critical for the future of this industry and the future of jobs in this sector. Ethan Automotive has already spent, as I understand it, several million dollars drawing up plans, seeking designers from around the world and getting the supply chain in order for their proposal to build a locally-made, Australian owned car. Punch Group is looking at building a car here in Australia by taking over the General Motors plant. That will, of course, involve negotiations with Holden locally and with the Detroit head office but it will also see the government being involved in a positive and proactive way. If that plant can be taken over by Punch Group or any other entity that has the capacity to do so, it will save those jobs. It will save supply chain jobs.

We also need to be very active in terms of working with the aftermarket sector that Senator Muir has been a champion of. Stuart Charity and his team, and the Motor Trades Association with Richard Dudley as CEO are doing a great job. We need to look at that as well. We need to have a relationship between the automotive sector, advanced manufacturing and our defence sectors so that there can be a transition there. But I do not believe we should give up on the automotive sector in this country in terms of the capacity, the ability and the potential to build cars in this country. After all, if we look at just 10 per cent of the 1.1 million cars that are sold in this country every year, that will be enough to keep the supply chain going.

I want to commend the work that Senator Carr has done on this. Indeed, I commend the work of all committee members but in particular Senator Carr. I also commend Senator Muir for his interest and Senator Madigan for his longstanding and passionate interest in automotive manufacturing and manufacturing generally.

I want to finish with a quote from Thomas Edison. He hit the nail on the head when he said, 'Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.' I believe we need to try just one more time to revive automotive manufacturing in this country because there are serious players with a real interest in reviving it. If that does not succeed, then we ought to look at the supply chain, at diversification and at a whole range of measures to stem the tsunami of job losses we are facing as a nation if we do not get this right.